Hung on a Razor's Edge
by Elaine of Shalott
Summary: AU adventures of Sandoval & Liam. Sequel to Twist of Fate
1. Prologue

**_Hung on a Razor's Edge_**

_Prologue_

A clearly agitated Renee strode out of the elevator and into the lair.  A bored Street and a slightly annoyed Augur greeted her.  The latter asked, "Just what was so important that I had to cancel my date?  I thought with the Taelons gone I wasn't going to be on constant call anymore." 

"It's about our old friend Sandoval.  Whenever he does something the slightest bit unusual someone goes down to make sure he's not plotting to seize control of some small country.  He's been spending a lot more of his ill-gotten gains lately, so I decided to check in personally, just so he'd know that it's not just a couple of low-level paper pushers who are still keeping an eye on him.  When I arrived someone else was there with him…"  

She paused for a moment and sighed.  "You'll think I'm crazy if I just tell you, I'll show you."  She took out her Global and quickly entered her instructions.  In a moment a short video was being displayed on Augur's computer system.

Augur stared in shock at the images of a cute, happy child playing in a garden.  "That looks like…It can't be." He said shaking his head in disbelief.

"What are you two talking about?" Street asked in a frustrated tone.

"The child appears to be about five years old, I think he may have shakarava and his name is Liam."  Renee elaborated.

Street didn't take long to catch on, "You can't possibly think that's Major Kincaid," Street says incredulously.

"Stranger things have happened, and a lot of them around him."  Renee answered.

Augur headed off Streets next objection by calling up a second image on the screen side-by-side with the first.  It showed a young boy, the same young boy playing with a Taelon puzzle.  "This is Liam before he suddenly grew into an adult.  I don't think there can be any doubt that this is physically the same child.  My questions are how, and what should we do about it?"


	2. Part 1

Sorry I forgot disclaimers on the prologue. I don't own EFC or the Characters. Only the story is mine.

Part 1  
  


August 18, 6 AC  
  


Sandoval was walking home from the park with his son. Over the past few months had tried to give Liam something resembling a normal childhood. When short trips to local clothing stores had proven safe he had cautiously expanded Liam's activities to include children's story hour at the library and trips to the local park. While Liam's remarkable learning abilities had placed him vastly ahead of his own age group in knowledge he seemed to revel in these opportunities to socialize and just be a child. Hence his happy chatter to his father at this moment.  
  


Sandoval had noticed one oddity. Every time the two of them went out they were followed by one of two people. That in and of itself was not that strange. He would have expected the ANA to want to keep an eye on him and his activities. However, both of the individuals in question were quite well known to him. Surely the ANA had people a little less flamboyant, who might at least be able to escape his notice for a few minutes. As Liam halted to look in the window of the toyshop Sandoval caught a glimpse of a figure in a leather jacket with red hair. "Mr. Deveraux must be busy," he thought, "Miss Street is taking an extra turn."  
  


Liam's interest in the toys waned and he moved on to the bookstore. Sandoval followed along as his son excitedly towed him inside past the display of the seventh Harry Potter book that had finally come out as he headed unerringly for the astronomy section. Suddenly someone slammed into Sandoval from the nearest aisle knocking him away from his son. He broke the man's hold and reached for his concealed weapon.  
  


"If you try anything I'll kill the kid." He turned his head and froze at the sight of a second man holding an energy weapon to Liam's head. "Move over there," the man commanded indicating an area where a temporary portal was set up.  
  


"Daddy" Liam screamed reaching vainly for his father as he was also dragged over. As the portal activated Sandoval saw Miss Street rush in weapon in hand. Just a moment too late.  
  



	3. Part 2

Part 2

  
  


Jay followed Sandoval and Liam on their excursion. Liam was happily talking with his father, and Sandoval seemed content to have his son with him. This wasn't what she had been expecting.

  
  


After much discussion and arguing in the Lair Augur and Renee had decided they should give Sandoval a chance with Liam. They thought it was what Liam would have wanted and that outweighed the doubts all of them had about Sandoval's parenting abilities. She had been furious. This was the man who had kidnapped her and tortured Liam. So when she had first started watching them she was only looking for an excuse to take Liam away from his father. Even with the Taelons gone Sandoval still had too many connections for any such plan to work without support from Augur and Renee, so she had simply set out to convince them that whatever they thought Liam would have wanted he should not be left in Sandoval's company another minute.

  
  


Instead she found herself being slowly convinced. She still had a few doubts. How would Sandoval react if, no knowing him, when he discovered that Liam was a hybrid? Worse yet what if he discovered that he had been Major Kincaid that had been a thorn in Sandoval's side for over two years? That last at least might not be an issue. They hadn't yet ruled out that the child was a clone. But somehow Street knew that wasn't the case. Liam had promised to see her outside of that chamber. He always kept his promises. So for now she mostly watched for the same reason Augur did, Sandoval had many enemies and sooner or later one of them would try something. Jay shivered and clutched the jacket she had talked Liam out of closer. The last thing she wanted was for him to get caught in the crossfire.

  
  


When Liam dragged Sandoval into his favorite bookstore Jay waited outside pretending to contemplate several items in the window. When she heard a crash from inside she instantly started for the entrance. When she heard Liam cry out, without hesitation she drew her weapon and yanked the door open. She rushed towards the disturbance only to see Liam and his father, as well as a pair of thugs disappear in the inter-dimensional portal. She flinched in anticipation of the detonation of the small self-destruct charges these illicit portals were equipped with. Instead she heard only the crackle of electricity arcing.

  
  


She smiled grimly as she gathered up the pieces still holding her gun in one hand. Less mess, but without complete destruction she should be able to get some clues from it. So intense was her concentration as she attempted to determine the form her analysis would take she failed to notice the movement to her left. "Police, drop your weapon," came the command from beside her.


	4. Part 3

Part 3  
  


Slowly, Street lowered her weapon to the ground. "I'm going to turn around slowly," she announced. "I am an ANA agent," she added as she now faced the local police officer, a man who looked almost too young to meet the age requirement for law enforcement. "I am going to slowly take my ID out of my pocket." Mentally, she thanked Renee for insisting that she and Augur carry such credentials if they were going to watch Sandoval and Liam.  
  


The cop tensed as the red-head reached in her pocket. His finger was on the trigger, but he relaxed as her ID became visible. Lowering his weapon he demanded, "What happened here?"  
  


Thinking quickly she replied, "An individual in our Witness Protection Program and a family member were just kidnapped. Do you have security cameras?" this last was addressed to the manager, a woman in her thirties who was cautiously approaching.  
  


"Yes, but they just display on monitors up front, the recording system is under repair and I didn't get a good look at what happened." she replied.  
  


Returning her attention tot he police officer and speaking quickly so he couldn't get a word in edgewise she said "I'll have to ask you not to attempt to identify the victims until we can determine how great our security breach is." When the police officer hesitated she added "I need to get this evidence to one of our labs, could you help me carry it outside." The police officer was overwhelmed by the occasion, this was the first time he had faced anything more difficult than a traffic stop and he numbly followed her lead she scooped up her weapon she led him outside and set up a temporary portal around the fried pieces of the kidnappers' portal. "Thanks," she said, with a cheerful wave as she portaled to the Lair.  
  


"I can't believe I sounded like that," she muttered to herself, "I've been spending far too much time with Renee." She sighed, "but it did work."  
  


"Send a signal to Augur and Renee's global on a secure channel code 'Kincaid red,'" she ordered the computer as she carried the portal remnants to an analysis station. "Let's see what we've got."


	5. Parts 4 and 5

Next two parts. More should be up this weekend. For those who are wondering I was in the process of uploading a chapter one of the times the site came down for maintenance. As a result there will always be an extra chapter listed for the story that is not really there.

  
  


Part 4

  
  


The inter-dimensional portal exited in an empty hallway. Sandoval found himself being directed through a door ten feet away from the portal. Passing through the door he found himself in a dimly lit room. Liam was shoved roughly in after him. When the door slammed shut the first thing Sandoval did was gather his crying son into his arms. As he murmured soothingly he checked his son for injury. An involuntary sigh of relief escaped him when he discovered nothing more severe than some minor bruises.

  
  


After several minutes Liam had cried himself out. In a tremulous voice that revealed both his fear and his exhaustion he said, "I'm scared Daddy."

  
  


"That's okay Liam. I am too. But we will get out of this." Sandoval reassured his son with more confidence than he felt at the moment. 

  
  


"Yeah," Liam sleepily, "Street will help us," he said.

  
  


"Street?"

  
  


"Um, hmm. Her name is (yawn) Juliet, but Augur says she gets mad if you call her that, so you have to call (yawn) her Jay or Street." With that statement Liam fell asleep in his father's arms.

  
  


For a moment Sandoval considered the fact that his son had now recognized two individuals who had been active in the Resistance on sight, and seemed to know a third. Then he shoved the thought aside. He did not have the luxury of contemplating such mysteries. He needed to focus on getting his son to safety.

  
  


Carefully, so as not to disturb the sleeping boy, Sandoval lifted Liam off his lap and gently lay him down on the floor. Then he began to examine his surroundings.

  
  


The room itself was devoid of any furnishings. A single recessed light provided a dim glow. The door was heavy and secure. Even if the lock was one of the kinds he knew how to pick, their captors had removed everything Sandoval had carried. They had left Liam his belongings but a crayon, one piece of paper and a crushed violet were not likely to be of use. As Sandoval scanned the room he saw several small vents in the room. He walked over to one of these. To his disappointment it was too small for even Liam to escape through.

  
  


Just as he started to turn away he faintly heard muffled voices carrying through the ducts. He could only make out snatches of what was being said and was unable to tell anything about the speakers except they were male.

  
  


"got him and his kid."

  
  


"…doubt the boy is his after all…"

  
  


"…cooperative once Jack had a gun pointed at the brat."

  
  


"…let him stew…be back in a couple of hours, until then…"

  
  


The voices became indistinct and then ceased altogether. Sandoval began to make his plans. He would get Liam out safely, no matter what.

  
  
  
  
  
  


Part 5

  
  


Tap, Tappity, Tappitty, Tap. The usually poised Renee Palmer was clearly agitated. She stood tapping her foot impatiently and drumming her fingers against the wall waiting for the elevator to complete its descent into the Lair. The doors opened and she could see Augur and Street furiously working at the computers. "What do we have?" she demanded as she rushed into the room.

  
  


"Two thugs used a temporary portal to snatch Liam and Sandoval. I got in a split-second too late to stop them, but I did manage to get the remnants of their escape portal." Street responded without looking up from what she was doing.

  
  


"That probably won't tell us much. Anyone with enough money can acquire them." 

  
  


"Not this one," Jay insisted. " I've sold black market portals. This isn't one of them. Instead of charges to blow up the computer it uses an intense power surge to destroy the data," the redhead continued..

  
  


"So most of the components are still intact, we've been able to identify the manufacturers. A few of them are specialized companies that deal mainly with the military. We were about to hack in to their system to find out who their building prototypes for," Augur elaborated.

  
  


Renee froze for a moment. In an icy voice she said, "That sounds like the new model the ANA has been developing."

  
  


"Who has access to it?" Augur asked quickly, before Renee's anger over the situation could make her lose focus.

  
  


"Myself, the new head of intelligence, Alex Kessler and the two researchers who are developing it Dr. Virginia Parsons and her assistant Roland Linder. We've kept it real quiet. We didn't want it to fall into the wrong hands." Renee said after a moments thought.

  
  


"Nice job," muttered Street sarcastically.

  
  


"We should see if any of them have any grudges against the Taelon's and their agents in general or Sandoval in particular" Augur said.

  
  


"Or if they owe any favors to anyone who had that kind of grudge." Renee put in.

  
  


Street was rapidly scanning the records, "Got it. Ten years ago Alex Kessler was an FBI agent in Anchorage, his career was going nowhere fast. Hubble Urick gave his career a jump start by arranging for him to be transferred to Washington as a favor to his mentor. And it seems you should have kept a better eye on the spending habits of disgraced government officials. Urick has been spending money like water since the Taelons left. If you'd paid half as much attention to him as you did to Sandoval, maybe we could have prevented this."

  
  


Normally this kind of statement would have caused an argument, but today Renee was too angered by what was for her a very personal betrayal. After the incident when Hubble had tried to have Sandoval killed, jeopardizing his evidence to the ANA she had defended him. As a result he had been allowed to resign quietly with no black marks on his record. "Where is he?" She demanded in a voice dripping with venom.

  
  


**************** 

  
  


Half an hours time found Renee pacing the Lair. She had shed her professional attire for something more suited to a rescue. She had weapons and a small pack with the usual equipment, grappling hooks, lockpicks, a portable portal, that sort of thing. What she didn't have was a place to go.

  
  


"Haven't you found anything yet," she demanded.

  
  


"We've located 14 buildings Urick has bought in the past month that would be private enough to take Liam and Sandoval without drawing a lot of attention. He clearly was trying to make it hard for anyone to find him." Street said.

  
  


"I think we should begin checking out each of these locations. We can't afford to wait any longer." Augur paused a moment, took a deep breath and added, "I also think we should get Dr Parks and Dr. Curzon here in case Liam is injured. It's not like there are many doctors capable of treating him."

  
  


"You get on it. I'll get started checking out the first location."

  
  


"Me too, I'm not leaving Liam in the hands of those creeps."

  
  


"Alright. We check in as we clear locations. Augur coordinates our efforts from here. When we find a suspicious location we alert each other." 

  
  


"Agreed"

  
  


"I'll see if I can dig up any more information to predict where he's most likely to be." Augur said to Renee and Street as they headed out.

  
  
  
  
  
  



	6. Part 6

Here's part six. As always I don't own EFC or it's characters. Another part next weekend. Thank you, everyone who reviewed.

  
  


Part 6

  
  


Sandoval sat on the floor, with his sleeping son in his arms. Ever since he heard his captors talking he had been considering how he might get Liam out of this alive. He had several ideas. It would depend on how their captors handled the situation. But if an opportunity presented itself he would be ready. Now it was time to begin his preparations. Gently he shifted his son into his left arm and carefully removed a purple crayon and a folded up drawing of a Taelon shuttle from the pocket of his son's overalls. On the back he printed clearly CALL RENEE - 446962905650.

  
  


They had taken his watch from him but he estimated that an hour and a half had passed since he sat down with Liam. Time was running out. With that thought in mind he gently shook his son. "Liam, wake up" he urged softly. Liam groaned, stretched, and as he became aware of his surroundings clung tightly to his father burying his face in his father's chest. 

  
  


Sandoval hugged his son tightly and stroked his hair softly in a steady rhythm, rocking slightly until Liam relaxed a little. "Listen to me Liam. When we get a chance we are going to run away from the bad people. OK." He felt a slight nod from his son so he continued, "Now I need you to promise me something. If we get separated for any reason I need you to run as fast as you can to the nearest global station. Call the lady whose number I wrote here, understand?" He said this last showing Liam the paper with his instructions.

  
  


"But what about you?" was the question from his always generous son.

  
  


"I'll come along as fast as I can. And she'll come and help. This is the best thing you can do to help me, Liam. Now look at me, do you promise?" He asked looking his son in the eye so he could be certain that Liam understood how serious this was.

  
  


"I promise," Liam said in a small voice.

  
  


"Good. I'm putting this in your pocket, keep it safe. If you see a public place or a police officer ask for help to call Renee. Don't worry, Liam. Everything will work out in the end." As Sandoval finished this statement he hugged his son tightly he hoping against hope that he was right about Renee. He thought she had enough interest in his son to provide help, at least to Liam, if not to Sandoval himself. He wasn't sure what the nature of her interest was, but he could hear the emotion in her voice when she told him his son was very special. The reminder to always remember that held more than a little threat. 

  
  


Sandoval and Liam remained as they were, each lost in his own thoughts for several minutes. Then the door opened as one of the kidnappers arrived. He kept his gun, Sandoval instinctively noted that it was an older, projectile design, pointed at Sandoval. He reached down cautiously never taking his eyes from Sandoval and seized Liam's forearm. He roughly yanked the terrified child from his father's embrace. Liam cried out briefly, but the kidnapper retained his grip on the boy as he stepped back. Gesturing with the gun he ordered Sandoval to stand and lead the way from the room.

  
  


Sandoval kept on the alert, memorizing their route and watching for a way out. The building they were in had clearly been some kind of storage facility. It had numerous large storage rooms and a few small offices scattered around the perimeter. It was almost empty now. Out of the corner of his eye he saw an office, one of the few still containing furniture, with a window looking out onto a shabby, deserted street. A surreptitious glance over his shoulder revealed that their guard was awkwardly stooped over in an attempt to drag the unwilling Liam along. As a result his gun was aimed low and to Sandoval's left. Without warning Sandoval pivoted and with a swift blow he knocked the weapon from the guard's hand. The man struggled, but years of training and a father's desperation gave Sandoval the advantage. Soon the kidnapper lay unconscious on the floor.

  
  


Sandoval quickly snatched up the gun and swung his son up into his arms. Once he was in the office he set Liam down behind the desk. With Liam out of harm's way he grabbed a metal chair and used it to break the window. He picked up Liam once more and carefully lifted Liam out. He began to climb through himself. "Jake what's keeping you?" The call echoed through the hall. Sandoval glanced up the street. There was no where to hide. None of the buildings seemed to have people present and there were no intersections for a couple hundred yards in each direction. He could go with his son, but they would almost certainly be caught before they reached cover, or he could buy time for Liam to escape. In a split second he made his choice.

  
  


"Liam, run!" He saw his son hesitate for a moment then he turned and ran as fast as he could go. Sandoval heard a profane exclamation as the kidnapper found his unconscious companion. As the man approached the office, Sandoval turned and fired to keep him back. Then he dove for cover behind the desk. For a couple of minutes the two exchanged fire, neither receiving a disabling injury although Sandoval had grazed his opponent's left arm with the first shot.

  
  


Then when Sandoval moved to fire again and pulled the trigger nothing happened. He was out of ammunition. The kidnapper seemed to recognize what had happened. In the sudden quiet Sandoval could hear Jake, back on his feet conversing softly with his companion. Jake said, "O.K. Mark," loud enough for Sandoval to hear and came through the door quickly. After a moment Mark followed. As Mark approached from one direction and Jake approached from the other Sandoval moved so his back was to the wall.

  
  


Sandoval tried to bluff his way out. "Put down the gun or I'll shoot," he said authoritatively.

  
  


Jake looked a little nervous but Mark just smirked. "If you had any bullets left in that gun you'd already have fired. Jake take the gun away from him and be careful not to block my shot." Jake complied and reloaded his gun, also taking aim at Sandoval. "Where's the kid?" asked Mark suddenly. Sandoval remained silent. "Where is the brat?" Mark demanded again.

  
  


This time Sandoval looked him in the eye and said, "what possible reason could I have for answering that?"

  
  


Mark thought for a moment and looked at the window. "That was broken before we exchanged fire. He must have got out that way. Jake, take him up to the bosses office. I'm going to look for the boy. When you have him secure contact me and we'll coordinate our search. We can't have the brat getting help." Jake nodded. As Mark climbed out the window he called back over his shoulder, "and Jake, don't mess up again."


End file.
